22 April 2016

Well, seriously, isn't it enough that one has to work, but now we are expected to stand up and work!

New medical reports tell us that sitting is bad for us. Are theses the same people who told us caffeine and alcohol were bad for us?

Truth be told, much of this winter was spent sitting, like 8 to 10 hours a day. Perhaps more, but who are you to judge?

As Spring approached, I decided to give the stand up desk a try. I have a stand up farm desk at my office, but rarely use it. It is a pain to move, so there was no way it was coming home. Sitting under my stand up desk was a travel desk I bought many years ago. I knew that my travel desk, set upon my writing table would make a fine standing desk.

I love a travel desk!

They are so romantic. There I am married to adventure with Osa Johnson.

Setting at my base camp in the Himalayas.

Standing in the hollows of West Virginia...

When I got it home, I realized why travel desks were used during war. One needs an army to tote them around. Porters and sherpas are a must for a travel desk.

Somehow, in my mind, I would stock my travel desk with an old typewriter, a iMac, books, a black fountain pen, and personalized stationary for proper thank you notes. I would toss it in the back of my car, and I would ready for any occasion, when one might need to set up an office. And how often have you found yourself in a situation while sitting in the Walmart parking lot when you needed to type up a thank-you note?

Ah, I am a hopeless romantic. An actual romantic has a large staff.

When I opened up my travel desk, I found all the things one might imagine. There was a yo-yo filled with candy, a yellow duck necklace filled with bubble soap, a tin of liquorice candy, old film (who has film anymore?), and a death certificate for an elderly relative.

Teddy rather likes the idea of the stand up desk, he believes it makes it easier to work together on projects, until he decides to take over. He always thinks he has the best idea!

07 April 2016

We have always had a soft spot in our heart for Black Mountain College. Often thought of as the initial spark for the avant-garde movement in the United States, Black Mountain was formed in 1933 by a quartet of dismissed professors from Rollins College. John Rice, Theodore Dreier, Frederick Georgia, and Ralph Lounsbury believed that education should be an open and nourishing endeavor, not a process of rote learning for specific periods of time during the day. When they tried to implement some of these ideas at Rollins, they were dismissed, Undaunted, they set out to devise their own college -- Black Mountain.

In the hills of North Carolina, just outside of Asheville, they gathered artist, writers, musician, architects, photographers, and craftsmen to live and work with the student body. The list is long and accomplished, including Anni and Josef Albers, Ruth Asawa, John Cage, Robert Creeley, Merce Cunningham,
Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller,
Gwendolyn and Jacob Knight Lawrence, Robert Motherwell, Charles Olson, and Robert Rauschenberg.

In late 2015, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston mounted the largest comprehensive exhibition on Black Mountain College. Helen Molesworth curated the mammoth collection of art, ceramics, textile art, photographs, which was supplemented with dance and music. The exhibition closed in January of 2016 but it left behind a wonderful monograph, Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957.

Check out this video for the exhibition.

There is still time to catch Leap Before You Look in Los Angeles and later in the the year in Columbus. In the meantime, grab a copy of the monograph, a must for Black Mountain fans.

01 April 2016

Mail time usually coincides with nap time, a time when the kitties snuggle in for a long spring nap. As usual, I come in with the mail and sit down at the table. Trick believes there is something special about sitting at the table. It signifies the possibility of dinner. If you sit in the sacred food chair, much crying a begging ensues. So when I sat down at the table to open the mail, while others slept, Trick came running.

And what a good day! Teddy, Trick and Treat got mail!

Our favorite rescue dog, Maddie AKA Bunnnymellon sent treats. Everyone got their own toy and photo of Maddie. Trick, being the only one up, got her pick of the bunch.

She choose the picture of Cris and Maddie seen above...

and she picked the yellow fish to be her toy.

As they say, you snooze, you lose.

Thanks Maddie...and a special shout out to your personal shopper, Maria.